Interesting. I am curious to what extent the indigenous people were wiped out by europeans vs their own enterprising kindred who were quicker to jump on new methods of war and looting.
New methods of war and looting brought upon by the horse culture is a great documented case study we have of indigenous tribes in North America.
The "cowboys and Indians" stereotype that has been popularized around the world was really only a few tribes in N. America, and it lasted for only about 200 years from when the Spanish explorers left horses on the plains until the Indians were finally subdued. The vast majority of tribes in N. America were not nomadic, on foot, and are undocumented because they were long gone by the time Europeans arrived.
The Lakota in the north and the Comanche in the south were the two main tribes who mastered the horse, exterminated and pushed out every other tribe, and gave the most plausible defense against American settlers and troops. They were not native to the large areas they controlled when Columbus arrived. Over the next centuries, they mastered the horse, became "war machines", and together with their allies, completely annihilated the existing tribes in the areas we now consider their original "homelands".
